Consultant at Search for Common Ground

Search for Common Ground (SFCG) is an international non-profit organization that promotes peaceful resolution of conflict. With headquarters in Washington DC and in Brussels, SFCG’s mission is to transform how individuals, organizations, and governments deal with conflict - away from adversarial approaches and toward cooperative solutions. SFCG seeks to help conflicting parties understand their differences and act on their commonalities. With a total of approximately 800 staff worldwide, SFCG implements projects in 49 countries, with permanent offices in over 35, including Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the US.

Job Title: Consultant for a Baseline Study

Description

The purpose is to collect, analyse, and present information related to the two projects that currently is not known, or only partly known, to SFCG.

It shall provide a complete picture of the situation in Borno and Adamawa States with regards to the following questions:

Security Actors: Who are the current formal and informal security actors? Where are they present? How do security forces and communities relate to one another: (both perspectives); What is the level of trust of security agents by community members, and vice-versa? What is the current level of collaboration between security and target communities?

Human Rights Abuses: What kind of human rights abuses are taking place? Where? To what extent? Where can reliable information be found? What is the trends of gender with regards to perpetrators and victims?

EW/ER systems: Which current EW/ER systems are in place? Who are the actors involved? Which geographic areas do they cover? What types of cases do they report? To what extent are they functional? Since when have they been in place?

EW/ER and communities: What is the communities’ relation and involvement in current EW/ER? What type and level of interaction of communities with EW/ER? Are there any trends with regards to involvement and gender?

Communication and decision makers: What are the traditional and formal channels of communication about security and human rights abuses? Who are the decision-makers? Which government agencies exist with a peacebuilding or security mandate that are present in communities? How effectively do these peacebuilding or security agencies work with communities?

Traditional Systems: Are there traditional ways of dealing with human rights abuses as well as early warning and early response? Which? How do these mechanisms work? Are there any trends with regards to involvement and gender?

Partners: Who are the most adequate potential implementing partners as per SFCG identified criteria?

Intervention zones: Which additional LGAs and communities are most relevant to expand to? (Ranking according to SFCG criteria) Who are the key local (community) actors of influence?

Methodology

The baseline shall be based on secondary data (to the extent that reliable data is available) and primary data. Primary data collection methods are primary qualitative such as key informant interviews, focus group discussions and surveys. Other methods can be used as considered relevant.

The baseline will be conducted in Adamawa and Borno State. For certain baseline questions, data collection is done in intervention LGAs and Communities, and for other questions data collection will take place in areas where SFCG is not present. Exact locations will be agreed between the consultant and SFCG project team.

Recommended interviewees at state level are e.g. i. West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), United Nations Agencies, relevant International NGOs, CSOs, EW/ER Networks, State Government Actors, State Police, other State Security Agents, Nigerian Military, Judicial actors, and the National Human Rights Commission.

Recommended interviewees at community level are e.g. Local Government Actors, CSOs working on Human Rights, Community Leaders, Representatives of IDPs, Religious Leaders, Peace Committee members, Women Leaders, Local Security Agents, Informal Security agents, Community Members involved in EW/ER, and community members including marginalized groups such as the people living with disabilities, IDPs and women.